Friday, September 27, 2013

{This Moment} - A Soule Mama Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a lovely first weekend of Autumn!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Today we met up with some of our most favorite people at Davis' Farmland. We had only been there one other time (back in 2010). Lots has changed since we were last there, but the one thing that has remained the same is that they still have oodles of super cute baby goats!

The girls could have easily spent the entire day snuggling and grooming animals.

And really, is there anything cuter than a baby goat? We think not.

The giant slide, go karts, face paint, playgrounds and scooters were favorite activities too. Everything (with the exception of the face painting) has been added since the last time we were there. The new additions are fabulous and really helped make the somewhat pricey admission much more worth it. We ended up staying later than we had planned and surely could have stayed even longer! We were barely in the car when the girls started asking about when we could go back again!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

This past Saturday we met up with my parents at Old Sturbridge Village to see the kiln all ablaze.

They only fire it up once per year.

We had never been before and with the forecast sounding perfectly autumnal we couldn't pass it up.

Dave has always wanted to go to this event and sadly was not able to make it this year either as he was sick and decided it was better to stay home.

Answering questions.

My apologies for the grainy pictures.

The light was low and we all know how much digital cameras love low light.

It surely was gorgeous all aglow.

Snuggles with Gramma and Grandpa were surely a favorite part of the trip.

Listening to the potter talk.

Items in the pottery barn waiting to be fired.

A cooper was also on hand to talk about the art of barrel making.

There were so many questions from the audience that we never did get to see them fire the barrel.

After some walking around, a hay ride and listening to Full Gael we decided to call it a night. It was a lovely way to spend the last Saturday of summer though and it ushered us into autumn beautifully!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Last week, as you may remember, we were dealing with a broken dryer. Dave discovered that he could easily repair it and put a call into our favorite, local appliance store. Hudson Appliance ordered the part for us, and the girls and I picked it up after Emma's dance class last week. While we were there they also gave us two word searches for the girls to complete for a contest they were running. The chosen word search child would receive four tickets to Sunday's Red Sox game. The girls completed the word searches (and it was no easy task as that was one of the hardest word searches I've ever seen) and as luck would have it Grace's word search was chosen! We were over the moon (and still are)! Dave and I bought the girls their first Red Sox hats in honor of this very special occasion!

Yesterday started out grey and cloudy with rain predicted for the afternoon. We dressed accordingly, packed our rain gear and headed off to church. The girls first week of cherub choir was yesterday and we knew that they didn't want to miss it. On our way to church Emma was singing a song to the clouds "please clouds move away we want to see the Red Sox.....". Evidently her song worked as the sky cleared while we were in church and became more and more gorgeous as the day went on (as you can see from the picture above)!

No trip to Fenway is complete without a Fenway Frank. Even I, who am not a big fan of hot dogs, always has one when we are there. Later on we also made sure that we each had ice cream in a little Red Sox hat, too. There's just something about eating ice cream out of those little baseball helmets that's just so fun!

Retired numbers.

Watching the game.

I was on the lookout for my friend Averil while we were there. She volunteers with the Red Sox Foundation and had shared on Facebook that she'd be there that day so I knew we had to find her before we left. I was thrilled to see her in our section and even more thrilled that she took a couple of family pictures for us! This one is a wee bit sunny but I just love it (Plus, I'm saving the better one to share on Friday)! Thanks Averil for taking some pictures for us! I'm so glad we got to visit for a bit too! It made an already very special day that much more amazing!

Once we'd had our fill of hot dogs, ice cream in little hats, and had sung "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Sweet Caroline" we figured we should get going. The Red Sox were winning (with ease) and we wanted to beat the crowds. We stopped to take a few more pictures. It was then that a sweet woman offered take one of all four of us (thus making it three family pictures in one day)! After all they don't call it "Friendly Fenway" for nothing!

It was in that amount of time that the game ended and we found ourselves dealing with the massive crowd we were trying to avoid. We decided not to rush and instead took our time leaving Fenway.

Once we had left the park we headed toward the T. With the crowds still massive and how gorgeous the day was we decided to keep walking. It was lovely to be in the city. I always find myself wishing that David and I had lived in Boston as newlyweds. It's such an amazing city and one of the few that I feel comfortable in. I actually think that I could have even been OK with living in Boston as a mama. I'm not a big city girl but for some reason Boston has never felt like the big city to me (now, New York on the other hand is a totally different story. That is indeed the big city and whenever I've been there I always feel like a fish out of water). We walked much longer and much farther than we had planned and before we knew it we found ourselves passing by the scene of the bombings. It was very surreal. We walked farther on and ended up coming upon this wall of peace flags. It was extremely moving and had me very choked up.

We wandered through the Public Garden and Boston Common and finally made it to a T stop that wasn't crowded. It was a glorious day full of wonderful memories and was all thanks to our dryer breaking. Thanks Hudson Appliance for choosing Grace's word search! We had a truly fabulous time at the game and it was a day that we will never forget!

Friday, September 20, 2013

{This Moment} - A Soule Mama Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a delightful weekend!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

A friend, and fellow homeschooling mama, recently asked me if Grace and Emma would be interested in becoming pen pals with her daughter. Knowing how much the girls love getting mail I quickly replied "yes!" Her daughter kicked off exchange by sending a fabulous postcard to the girls, and while we had all intentions of writing back right away my plan was foiled when we were sick for two weeks. Thankfully, we're all finally all better and the cards have now been written and mailed (and probably received at this point). Here's to looking forward to much correspondence between these three sweet girls!

Monday, September 16, 2013

What do you do when your dyer stops working? Why head to the local laundromat, of course!

Our first trip to the laundromat was on Friday (as anyone who follows us on Instagram and Facebook can attest to). The girls had such a blast, and since we had more wash in need of doing (and therefor drying) we headed back today!

The girls really only needed me to drive the car and carry the baskets of heavy wash in. After that they took it from there!

Passing the time while the wash dries.

They took turns checking on the status of each dyer.

While the girls were keeping an eye on the wash I got to do a little coloring!

The full baskets were my cue to start folding. I'm sure the girls would have done this part too if they were tall enough to reach the folding tables!

What made it even more fun was that my friend (and fellow homeschooling mama) Sharon is also sans dryer currently. She was the one that suggested we join her at the laundromat and I am so glad that she did! Not only did the girls have a fabulous time experiencing a new place, but it gave Sharon and I a chance to chat while we were there. Thanks Sharon for inviting us along! It was such a treat to have a sidekick during this dryerless time!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Today we began the long process of painting the fence (or as I like to call it 'whitewashing' the fence. Doesn't that just sound more exciting than 'painting the fence'?! Regardless, painting, whitewashing, we began this long overdue project today. It's one that Dave and I went back and forth about for awhile. Should we hire someone to do it or us simply rolling up our sleeves and doing it ourselves? The later won out and the girls were thrilled! They have been inquiring, almost daily, about when we would start painting the fence, and with the glorious weather we had today we figured it was time to finally answer their question. We only finished the driveway side of the fence today (there is so much more to go) but as you can see it already looks tons better!

I was out there for a total of three hours. The girls lasted roughly two. Not bad considering how young they are and this being their first major painting project and all. I love how excited they were, and I love that it was just one more thing that we can all work on together to maintain this dear farmhouse of ours. I couldn't help but feel connected to all the other families that have lived in house before us. It's times like this that get me thinkin' all the way back to the original owners and how they most likely lived very similar to how we live in this space today. I imagine that there were several babies born, raised and schooled here in our sweet old farmhouse. I feel such a connection to those families from all those years ago because of that (minus the home birth part- oh, if only I had known)!

Needless to say, as I was coming to the final three sections of the driveway side of the fence a sweet old gentleman (he had to be in his 80s) showed up asking if I'd like some help. He shared with me that his English was not good and he'd love to talk to me so that it could get better. "Are you from Brazil or Portugal?" I inquired (since there is a large population from both countries in our area). He shared with me that he was from Cuba and that Castro had him jailed for four years due a few things (most of which escape my mind right now) one of which was talking about the Bible. He went on to say that he ended up in America due to a letter he received from the first President Bush asking if he'd like to bring his family and come live here. He was happy to get to do so but said that he misses Cuba since "America is too big". We chatted some more, about his family (he, his children and grandchildren all live in Miami) and mine, and he got to meet the girls and Dave. Before long we were done and he said his thank yous and good-byes and told us he'd come back and help us this week if we'd like. It was such a treat to have this person, a complete stranger, offer help. It made the world seem a little kinder. A little more like how it must have been all those years ago when our house wasn't so old and the world was much sweeter.

About Me

I am married to an amazing man and have two wonderful daughters. Together the four of us are living an incredible life full of wonder, love and amazing experiences. Each day brings something new and exciting and it's always an adventure to see where it takes us. I adore being a stay at home mom and cannot imagine what my days would be like without my daughters and our many adventures together. I love living in New England and have been longing for small town life in a way that is absolutely indescribable.